South of the central court lies a group of rooms of a ceremonial character. In the centre of this group is the lîwân No. 29, 6 x 10·70 metres. It was covered by a barrel vault of brick, which has now fallen in. The vault oversailed the wall and its point of springing is 4·30 metres above the level of the ground, instead of the 3·40 metres above ground-level at which the vaults spring in the adjoining chambers to east and west. It is therefore clear that the vault of 29 must considerably have overtopped the other vaults, and as I shall show later, it is usual to find the ceremonial lîwân higher and more important than the remaining chambers of the group. I have followed Dr. Reuther in giving it a rectangular frame upon the façade of the court (section _e-f_, Plate 5, Fig. 1). Two large doors, 1·50 metres wide and 3·64 high to the top of the arch, open on either side of the lîwân, on the east into rooms 41 and 42, and on the west into rooms 31 and 32, which lie at right angles to the lîwân. At the south end a similar door leads into No. 30, a chamber 6 metres square, which has been covered by a barrel vault of brick running north and south, and doubtless the same height as the vault of the lîwân. Doors of the same character, with ovoid arches set back from the jambs, are placed in the middle of the east, south, and west walls of No. 30. The fact that the high vaults of Nos. 29 and 30 were not sufficiently buttressed by the lower vaults on either side accounts for their fall. Rooms 31 and 32 are distinguished by a plaster decoration more elaborate than any which is to be found elsewhere in the palace, with the sole exception of the mosque. The vault of No. 31 resembles the vault of the ḥaram, and like the ḥaram vault it must have been built over a centering. It is divided into two compartments by three transverse arches, one spanning the centre of the chamber, the other two placed respectively against the east and west walls (Plate 30, Fig. 1). These transverse arches, which are ·95 metre wide, spring from a double outset at a height of 2·80 metres from the ground. The vault between the arches springs at a point ·25 metre higher. It is composed, like the ḥaram vault, of narrow oversailing ridges worked in stucco. Along the top of the vault are placed between each pair of transverse arches four square stucco motives, some of which remain intact. They differ slightly from each other, but all are variants of the same theme (Plate 30, Fig. 2). The first from the east end consists of four squares within one another, like a Chinese box, each sunk behind the other. In the centre there is a circular rosette, doubly recessed. In the second a single recessed square contains a saucer-shaped motive, the surface of the saucer being covered with rings of small plaster excrescences. In the third the usual recessed square is filled with a triply sunk diamond, with a recessed rosette in the centre. In the fourth the recessed square frame is filled